World's Wildest Police Videos
World's Wildest Police Videos is a reality TV show that deals with crazy car crashes, riots and arrests or anything to do with the police. The original run time is 60 minutes. Production World's Wildest Police Videos began in 1998 and ran for three seasons, comprising a total of 36 episodes. Despite being officially cancelled in 2002, new episodes were only aired until 2001, when the show shortened its name to Police Videos. Most of the police videos featured on the show were from various U.S.A police departments, but footage from other nations such as Argentina and the United Kingdom also appeared. Video sources included cameras from police cars, helicopters, store security systems, news reporters, and private citizens from around the world. Much of the footage had previously only been seen by law enforcement officials. The show became popular with viewers. It had the highest ratings of any FOX network television special to that date. It was also featured on Entertainment Tonight and was re-aired later that month. It was the first sweeps-month special ever to run twice during a sweeps period by FOX. Format The series began with the special World's Scariest Police Chases, which was broadcast on February 2, 1997. It was narrated by actor Peter Coyote, and featured commentary by Captain C. W. Jensen of the Portland Police Bureau. After the first special, the show was broadcast weekly, hosted by John Bunnell, a retired police officer and former Sheriff of Multnomah County, Oregon. Bunnell's commentary was often characterized by over-dramatic descriptions of the struggle between good and evil, the police and criminals, victims and abusers, etc. Although Bunnell hosted and commentated on most of the show, most police video segments were dubbed with the actual law enforcement officials acting in the situation presented. Tire screeching noises, horn beeps and sirens are often overdubbed into these segments. It has been widely noticed that the same voice is used in almost every helicopter footage scene, regardless of the location the footage is from. This uncredited voice is said to be that of Lawrence Welk III who usually goes by "Larry Welk," and is a reporter and helicopter traffic pilot for KCAL-TV and KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. He is also the grandson of famed musician Lawrence Welk. In one episode, his voice is even used as that of an announcer at a motorcross rally. Originally, a typical episode included sections entitled: "PIT maneuver," "Car Thieves," "Rainy Chase," "Big Rig Road Block," "Jumping Off Bridge," and "Drunk Drivers." This was soon dropped, and replaced with a string of clips, each commentated on by Bunnell. After a few videos, a small clip of Bunnell would be shown, often describing the police mentality behind the videos about to appear. Occasionally, episodes were dedicated to police officers killed in the line of duty. A video game based on the series was released for the PlayStation in 2001, entitled World's Scariest Police Chases, also featuring Bunnell. The game received mixed reviews, ranging from a 3.5/10 from Gamespot.com, to a 9/10 from Official PlayStation Magazine (UK). In the Family Guy episode Quagmire's Baby there is a sequence of Fred Flintstone fleeing from the police in the family car, in an episode of World's Wildest Police Videos. Flintstone crashes, and attempts to flee on foot, but is delayed by the Hanna-Barbera skiddadle running effect. A similar sequence was used in the episode Something, Something, Something, Dark Side when TIE Fighters and a Star Destroyer were chasing the Millennium Falcon. These sequences were narrated by Sheriff John Bunnell himself. Worldwide syndication World's Wildest Police Videos is syndicated worldwide, being broadcast in the following countries in order of date of first broadcast: *'United States': 1998-2002 on Fox; The series was syndicated on Spike TV until June 2007, however it can currently be found on TruTV. It can also be seen as Police Chases in the early morning on TNT. Spanish language re-runs are also syndicated on Telemundo. Spike also airs new episodes of the show revival. *'Hungary': Viasat 6 *'Sweden': Aired and rerun on ZTV. *'Norway': Viasat 4 *'Indonesia': antv. *'Australia': Some premiere episodes were shown on the Seven Network and Network Ten, and re-runs of all episodes appear on Fox8. *'Brazil': weekly (Sunday) mash-up show consisting of 4 shows mixed together. Aired on Universal Channel. *'Germany': on RTL, called Im Einsatz, die spektakulärsten Polizei-Videos der Welt, commentated by former American police officer Stephan T. Rose. *'Ireland': TV3 Ireland *'Iceland': SkjárEinn (2000-2001) *'United Kingdom': Bravo, ITV4 and Men & Motors *'México': Televisa *'South Africa': DStv *'Greece': Skai TV *'Canada': mentv, CourtTV Canada *'Latin America': truTV Latin America *'United Arab Emirates': MBC Action